SOK Kademakers

For the repair of the quay walls, commissioned by the municipality of Amsterdam, the Beens Group – Count & Cooper combination has been renewing the inner-city quay walls in the center of Amsterdam since 2021. A large number of quay walls must be replaced in the inner city area, large parts of which are Unesco heritage. The impact of the work on accessibility and the living environment is enormous, with complexity mainly being rooted in the ground.

Herengracht - Amsterdam

Beens is a specialist in inner-city quay walls and Count & Cooper in managing construction projects in a complex environment. Count & Cooper is a 'builder that does not build': Together we ensure that production is well prepared and can continue as predicted. This is quite a challenge in the center of Amsterdam. Count & Cooper brings in project and environment management, IT tooling and a team of specialists. The collaboration between Beens and Count & Cooper is unique because the combination has all the capacity in-house: both technically and organisationally, both the equipment and the people who organize and carry it out.

Beens and Count & Cooper have started a project company in which both are shareholders to carry out these activities.

By scaling up, automating and optimizing processes, learning from completed projects, and working in series, we aspire to realize as many meters as possible per year, at decreasing costs, a faster working method and increasing stakeholder satisfaction. We do this by problem-solving and working more efficiently and faster. It is important to continuously monitor performance and improve on that basis.

Prior to the work, we coordinate a lot with stakeholders in the area. There are many preconditions that must be taken into account in a logical and efficient way. For example, there are many sailing movements of tour and pleasure boats on the implementation projects. We consult with Nautical Management in advance and take the Sailing Program into account. For example, we meet a set of requirements so that canal cruises and pleasure crafts are inconvenienced as little as possible and we can work efficiently. In addition, we take into account, for example, interface projects, supplying the city center by water and we communicate with local residents and passers-by when we are going to lift long parts, so that they are safely out of the fall range.

Geldersekade - Amsterdam

One of the starting points is the supply of all our material and equipment by water. We are doing this so that the traffic on the road network in the city center is not put under extra strain and to limit the burden on the already weak quays. That is not an easy task in the narrow Amsterdam canals. We have invested in special hydraulic engineering equipment for this purpose, which fits under the lowest bridge in Amsterdam and can thus reach everywhere. All material and equipment is stored at our construction hub in the Coenhaven, after which it is shipped to the construction site 'just in time'.